Repotting plants is one of the favorite and recurring activities of plantlovers, always in search of their enhancement and optimal growing and maintenance conditions.
So which container to choose? Pot or cache-pot, what are the differences?
In general, it is strongly recommended to use growing pots with holes in the bottom of the pot, whether plastic or terracotta. These holes allow both constant aeration of the soil but also excellent drainage thanks to the evacuation of excess water from irrigation. This therefore prevents the roots of your plant from stagnating in water because very few plants are favorable to these growing conditions – with the exception of aquatic or semi-aquatic plants.
As for the cache-pot, as its name suggests, it is supposed to "hide" a pot. This therefore implies that its bottom is full in order to accommodate another pot with holes. Very often more aesthetic, colorful, design or even refined, planters can be made of different materials such as stainless steel, earthenware, or glass. This diversity allows you to vary the cachepots or, on the contrary, standardize them in your interior decoration.
Therefore, you can also opt for lighter cache-pots in order to be able to move your plants more easily according to the seasons towards better exposure.
Finally, in hot and dry weather only, a cache-pot allows you to create a reserve of water for the plant that it can draw as it pleases. Small exception of wicker planters which obviously do not allow this, but in this case we recommend that you place a saucer at the bottom of the planter to prevent water from damaging the wicker.
Last possibility: repotting directly in a cachepot. Far from optimal cultivation solutions due to lack of drainage, it is essential to put in place a few tricks to ensure good plant growth.
Place a sufficiently thick layer of clay ball about 3 cm at the bottom of the planter for a double action. The first is to create a drainage area in which the clay balls absorb excess water, strongly limiting stagnant water. The second action is the constitution of a reserve of moisture contained in the balls made available to the roots.
Water very little and often. The idea is to moisten the soil particles gradually over the entire height of the root ball without the water flowing directly to the bottom of the pot.
Finally, for repotting directly in a flowerpot,
